There are lots of women to listen to this week!
Laura Jackson, conductor
Credit: Mark Clague
The Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO) has named Laura Jackson its next music director, only the fifth to hold the position in the Orchestra’s 100-year history. She will begin her tenure for the 2027-28 season. She gave her debut with the orchestra in a concert in April 2026, leading a program of López, Rodrigo, and Sibelius with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. During the 2026-27 season she will conduct two concerts as Music Director Designate. She also continues as Music Director of the Reno Symphony.
Jackson has a reputation as a conductor at home with repertoire from every era, including “powerful and original interpretations of Romantic masterpieces, her championing of new music, and her commitment to mentoring the next generation of musicians, composers, and conductors.” Her guest conducting roster is always full, and she has led ensembles across the United States, Canada, Europe, Algeria, the Philippines and China.
Announced July 14, a new initiative has been founded by writer and broadcaster Dr Leah Broad called Unheard Heritage. The project grew out of her research into British women in music and her first book Quartet: How Four Women Challenged the Musical World — a group biography of Ethel Smyth, Rebecca Clarke, Dorothy Howell and Doreen Carwithen. Unheard Heritage will record obscure and lesser-known historical pieces by women, and also will also combine them with academic research to help bring them to new audiences. Three other collaborators are joining Dr. Broad in her efforts: conductor John Andrews as Artistic Director, pianist Samantha Ege as Performance Lead, and Adam Binks, Managing Director of Resonus Classics, the Partner Label. Each of her collaborators holds a doctorate in historical musicology, as does Dr. Broad, and they hope that combining research and recordings of historical pieces will help ensure that they remain available for listeners to hear. As of 2026, Unheard Heritage has released three critically acclaimed albums. They include: the first-ever album of the orchestral music of Avril Coleridge-Taylor, featuring one of WPA’s favorite performer-musicologists Dr. Samantha Ege; the world premiere recording of Ethel Smyth’s opera Der Wald; and the orchestral works of Grace Williams. Planned releases in the future include the music of Doreen Carwithen and Elizabeth Maconchy.
Dora Pejačević (1885-1923)
On July 17, the Houston Grand Opera has announced that it will make the first recording of Missy Mazzoli’s opera Breaking the Waves on the Houston Grand Opera label. The album is scheduled for release on August 7th.
On July 14, members of the South Florida Symphony Orchestra performed piano trios by two favorite composers of ours at Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy: Louise Farrenc and Dora Pejačević. Such a concert, according to Robert Croan’s coverage in The Palm Beach Arts Paper, seems to have been something of a rarity until the recent season. “Happily . . . women composers (along with conductors) are finally being taken seriously in the classical music business. Some of the best composers of the last 50 to 75 years are women, and South Florida Symphony Orchestra, under its talented conductor Sebrina Maria Alfonso, has programmed three works by women composers for the 2026-27 season.” Though certainly established favorites for readers of Feminist in the Concert Hall, Farrenc’s and Pejačević’s works were reported as revelations to the audience, and received an enthusiastic reception.
On July 16, the Luna Composition Lab announced its 2026-27 season, which continues its multi-year celebration of its 10th anniversary, Luna Lab@10. The celebration spans the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons, and will boast over fifty premieres of new works that have been co-commissioned, presented, and performed by leading ensembles. The organization was founded in 2016 by composers Missy Mazzoli and Ellen Reid as a manifestation of their commitment to support young composers who are female, nonbinary, or gender-nonconforming as the future of music. Instead of waiting for young composers to reach university or post-graduate education, LCL works to begin supporting them as early as possible.
On July 24, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Ravinia program has been announced featuring women film composers, led by Marin Alsop. The program, titled On the Movies, has been co-curated by composer Laura Karpman, whose work includes movies, television, video games, and work as co-founder for the Alliance for Women Film Composers; and Marin Alsop, Ravinia’s chief conductor and a longtime advocate for women in music. On the Movies will feature works by composers Chanda Dancy, Anna Meredith, Germaine Franco, Hildur Guðnadóttir, and Rachel Portman to pay tribute to and celebrate women in cinema — on and off the screen
On July 22, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra presents its program Symphonic Pride: We Have Always Been Here, a joyful, feel-everything celebration of LGBTQ+ artists whose creativity has shaped orchestral music across the centuries. Included on the program are Elena Kats-Chernin’s Rainbow Promise and Jennifer Higdon’s blue cathedral, as well as an arrangement of Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club. The BBC SSO performs the UK premiere of Kats-Chernin’s piece, which was recently commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to celebrate same-sex marriage becoming recognized in the UK in 2013. Higdon’s blue cathedral—a classic of contemporary orchestra repertoire and eagerly anticipated by audiences and ensembles alike—meditates on expansive themes of potential and journey, perennial themes of Pride.
Let us know what you’re listening to! Email us at info@wophil.org